


Familiar Faces

by chiefenjolras



Category: Marble Hornets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-26
Updated: 2015-09-26
Packaged: 2018-04-23 12:46:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4877365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiefenjolras/pseuds/chiefenjolras
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An old friend shows up at Tim's door</p>
            </blockquote>





	Familiar Faces

Tim never expected Jay to show up on his doorstep alive. He had dreams of course, waking up to find Jay’s dead body propped against his wall. But this wasn’t it. Jay still looked like shit, but he was alive nonetheless.

Tim had let him in, silent and shocked, backing into the wall as Jay shuffled past him silent as well. Eventually they found their way to his living room. That was nearly ten minutes ago and neither of them had yet to speak a word. Tim kept his eyes on the coffee table before him. One hand ran through his hair in agitation. The other entwined in his jeans pocket, searching for pills that he hadn’t needed in months.

“Tim!” Jay barked, shocking the other out of his reverie. Tim’s face twisted for a moment before settling down into  distant gaze. “Listen to me, we’re okay. I’m fine, you’re fine. Whatever it was, it’s gone. Brian...Alex, it cut its losses and it left.”

Tim uttered a sharp bark of a laugh, the glaze in his eyes gone. “He’ll never be gone.” Glancing at Jay, torn up and twiddling his thumbs on his lap in silence, he felt a twinge of regret. Jay was never suppose to be part of this. He just wanted to help Alex and save Jessica.

Tim leaned back against his couch. “Sorry. I’m sure you’re right, Jay. Either way, it’s out of our hair for now. You’re...okay, right?”

Jay nodded, his hands drifting up to where he had been shot. “Yeah, I’m okay. No coughing, I’m sleeping well, appetite is back.” He looked down at himself and exhaled a single laugh.

Sleeping, my ass, Tim thought.

Jay’s appearance made him out to be a liar. “I woke up, uh, about a month or so ago, in a hospital. They said I had been in a coma for a few months, some hikers found me in the woods. When I woke up I told them the last thing I remembered was a seizure so they just chalked it up to a fugue caused by epilepsy. That was that, after I was deemed okay to leave I did, skipped town.” A shiver wracked his body and Jay pulled his jacket tighter around his frame. “Uh, I went back to your old house when I got out, but it had burned down.”

Tim nodded, “You saw the videos, I assume?”

“After I failed to find you, yeah.”

He diverted his eyes away from Jay, the obvious statement still lingering. Both shifted in their seats. The thought of explaining himself grew sour on his tongue. Finally Jay spoke up.

“Thanks for helping Jessica.”

Tim’s eyes flashed back toward Jay, his shoulders immediately sagging downward, unaware that he had slowly been drawing his body inward. He nodded once. It felt like taboo to bring up ghosts from the past.

Jay hopped up from the chair he was seated in immediately after the nod. He glanced around the small living room before pointing to the kitchen, “Er, mind if I grab a glass of water?”

 

After setting Jay up with a glass of water and a box of crackers (he ate out more often than not) Jay began chattering about the present. He asked Tim how he was of current, about his job and complimented his house. Tim resisted the urge to laugh at such mundane comments coming from Jay’s mouth. Regardless he answered them as honestly as he was comfortable with.

Eventually the conversation came full circle and Tim dropped the question, “What about you?” He had never seen a person crumple so quickly in three words.

Jay’s hand clenched around the glass of water so tightly Tim thought it might shatter under the force.

“Jesus, Jay, I…” He trailed off. He had been so concerned with his own problems when Jay showed up, had there even been a car outside? Did he even have a phone?

Jay pushed the glass away, feeling the same sour taste on his tongue that Tim had felt only an hour earlier. “You know why I’m here, Tim.”

“I thought you were dead, Jay. I was sure of it.” He had left Jay’s car, took everything out of it, no doubt it had been either stolen or repossessed in the months afterwards. Jay had gone into Benedict Hall with what? His camera, a cellphone, which was probably fried due to the close proximity of the Operator, a flashlight, and the clothes on his back. The clothes, were no doubt the same ones he had been dropped off into the woods in, judging by the small hole near the abdomen and a stain that was in the process of fading but not quite there yet.

“I tried to stay in the hospital as long as possible but after awhile they tossed me out. You were the only one I could go to. You’ve done this before right?”

He had, when Alex broke his leg, or when he suffered seizures and lost time, but most of the time Brian had been there to point him in the right direction, and even then he had a house to go to and a car to drive. Jay had what? Nothing but the clothes on his back.

“I’m not sure if I’m okay, but I didn’t know who else to go to who knows what it’s like. I’ve been living on the streets, in homeless shelters. I can’t remember my family...”

Tim realized he hadn’t spoken a word since Jay’s confession and the the man was breaking down in front in him. Jay, who always kept the cool head and resisted the Operator longer than any of them, who kept digging for the truth and answers even when the world was against him, was buckling under the weight of so much loss. He had the best chance of all of them to make it out alive, and he did, but not before everything was stripped.

The glass of water was flung from the counter, smashing on the floor at Tim’s feet.  “Say something!”  Jay snarled, a noise almost unhuman. His tone was something born out of months of tightly compressed stress and anger, boiling in his throat like stomach acid.

Tim stepped away from the spreading water and broken glass. He was quiet for a moment and then kneeled down to scoop the shattered glass up. Water soaked into the knees of his jeans and he nicked his fingers on the glass a few times but hardly noticed. His mind was buzzing and his mouth was running.

“I’m sorry, Jay. I’m so so sorry. I never apologized to anyone, I never got a chance to, but you’re here and I need to say I’m sorry for everything that happened to you.”

Head bent and knees on the ground he looked like a man awaiting retribution. Tim was blathering and shards of glass were digging into his skin. Everything was not fine and maybe he could pretend it was, with his job and his home and the silence in his mind (god it was so quiet in his life now) but Jay couldn’t. Maybe he was finally free and just passed it onto the closest unfortunate soul next to him. It should have given him peace of mind but the more Jay splintered at his counter the less he knew he could live with it. Just as they had to confront Alex, he had to confront this.

He stood and moved past the counter to drop the glass into the trash and press his cut hands against a towel. “We’ll sort this out, Jay. Again. Together. Whatever you need to get back up on your feet.”

“I’m sorry, Tim.

“No, I’m sorry, Jay.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just a small drabble I wanted to get out of my mind and onto paper, thank you for reading!


End file.
